Southern California Friends - Then and Now

Without a doubt a highlight of my time spent in the Laguna Beach area was reconnecting with old friends, some I had not seen in over 45 years. Others I have seen once or twice during that time and one I had completely lost contact with but I was able to track him down. It is often easy to decide to not contact people from the past because obviously everyone has changed, nothing is the same and everyone has gone their own way since the 60's when we first became friends. For some reason though I just felt that I needed to see whomever I could while I was there and it turned out that I saw even more people than I had hoped to. If I had any advice to give old friends and whether or not you should reach out to reconnect it would be this: Go into the potential reunion with no expectations. Go into it knowing that you may reach out and your interest may not be returned. Realize that the initial reunion may be the only reunion with no followup and be ok with that. Remember, nothing ventured, nothing gained is an old saying and it certainly holds true when it comes to seeking out and contacting old friends. You never know what may come of it but hopefully your reunions will be as positive as mine in Southern California turned out to be. As a matter of fact, I am motivated to continue looking for some of those friends from the 60's and 70's.

Each reunion was unique and yet many of the shared memories were the same because of our close connections "back in the day". In the order in which they happened here are the people that I got to see.

Speaking of memories here is an interesting quote that I saw on Twitter. I went on line hoping to see who it was that said it but since I couldn't find a source I will identify it as author - anonymous for the time being. "I think the only reason why people hold onto memories so tight is because memories are the only things that don't change when everything else does". 

Bill Sumner - Bill and I haven't seen each other since the late 60's or early 70's and I wasn't sure how I would find him this time. I knew that he had stayed in southern California because he has had a very successful career as a high school and club track coach. I found his track club online and saw that they had a workout schedule so I went to the park where they were meeting on a Thursday. I got there over an hour early so that I could get my own workout in on the trails and the trip would be productive if he wasn't at the practice. 

As I was finishing my run I passed a lot of people of all ages running the opposite direction and I kept looking to see if I might see Bill. I got back to the park and asked a woman with a club shirt on if Coach Sumner was there and she said that he was out running. It turned out that she was his wife so we visited for a while until she saw him coming and she took me out to the trail and said, "Coach, this guy wants to join your club". He glanced at me and started to tell me what to do, stopped and said, "You're Dana". It was funny. 

I ran a small part of the workout with his club and then waited until they were done so we got a chance to visit for a while and catch up a little. He was leaving the next day with his high school team to the mountains for a running camp so I was really lucky to reconnect. We have exchanged a few texts since then.

Bill and I ran against each other in high school, were college teammates at MSAC and were both part of the group from Ted's House. We shared a lot of experiences.

Mike "Paisano" Preziose. After seeing Bill I was even more motivated to see some others from the "group". I was supposed to see Mike when I was last in southern California for the MSAC Relays but he was out of town most of the time I was there so we agreed to try to get together this time. Since I knew he worked and was often out of town I wasn't sure whether we would connect or not. 

The day after seeing Bill I was driving to the beach for a workout and called Mike to say hello and see what his schedule was. It turns out that he had stayed home for work and wanted me to come to his home to see it and then go to lunch. It was funny when I showed up he was wearing a NY Yankees hat, Mike was born and spent parts of his childhood in NY. I immediately put my Red Sox hat on to walk into the house. We had a great visit and then a good lunch in downtown Whittier. 

When we were kids, Whittier is where we used to drive over the hill on weekends to cruise Whittier Boulevard and go to Bob's Big Boy but I had never been to downtown Whittier. 

Mike and I had see one another when I was in San Diego in 2001 for a National Conference and he drove down and spent some time with Jackie and I. It was hard to believe that it had been over 13 years again. Before that it was also the late 60's or early 70's since we had been together. Mike was also part of the "House Crowd".

Jenny Chase Sissung - When I reconnected with Fred Mershon in Florida they put Jenny and I back in touch and we have texted back and forth every week or so since. When I told Jenny that I was coming to southern California we agreed to meet for lunch. She suggested a place at the Dana Point Harbor even though it gave her a further distance to drive. I got there early so I drove down to San Clemente to visit a used book store that I found online. It was a really nice store and of course I walked out with a bag full of books that I probably didn't need. But will read!

When I finished at the bookstore I returned to Dana Point to look around the Harbor area and wait to meet Jenny for lunch. We had a really good time catching up and I'm sure we'll continue to stay in touch, we have since I returned home.

Jenny and I went to high school together, she was two years behind me. She and I ran on a coed relay team in the all school track meet in 1966 that set the school record. Later Jenny started dating another friend from the house, Rob Sissung and so she became part of the group. Rob is one of the five of us that joined the Navy together in 1968 and sadly he passed away a few years ago. He and Jenny were married while we were in the Navy and they had married housing on base when Rob, Ted and I were stationed in Memphis. The last time I saw either of them was in Memphis, the graciously opened their home and shared their car with us while we were at Memphis before Ted and I were sent to different duty assignments.

Rex Hall - When I got to Laguna Hills I sent Rex a text to see if he knew how to get hold of Bill. I didn't hear back until a couple of days after I tracked Bill down but when I did Rex suggested we meet for a walking workout and coffee also at the Dana Point Harbor, the morning after I had lunch with Jenny. What I thought would be a quick walk and a quick cup of coffee turned into a two hour plus reunion. It was great visiting and catching up, hearing about more of my high school and college teammates that Rex has seen from time to time. 

Rex is a retired fire fighter but he is also a retired very successful high school track and cross country coach. As a matter of fact, that's how I got his cell number. When I was at the Mt. SAC Relays his team was there but it turned out that he had retired the year before. I was still able to get his number. 

The last time I had seen Rex was in the late 90's in Colorado Springs or maybe the early 00's. He was in Colorado Springs running in the World Police and Fire Track Championships and I was a timer at the meet. It was an unexpected reunion then but we managed to get together for dinner. Rex and I were high school teammates for three years, he was a year behind me.

After returning home I dug through my pictures and created the following "Then & Now" pictures. 

We've obviously all changed in many ways but one thing that can never change are the memories that we all share. I hope to have future posts with future reunions. In my last blog, I wrote about reunions with Clarence Green and Fred Mershon and I hope to be writing more about them sooner than later.